Beverly Theater

The theatre did not close because of local complaints, it closed because moviegoers went to Westwood or Hollywood. The town had no night life to boot. I worked there as an usher in 1974.

This theatre was operated by Fox West Coast Theatres from 1925 to the late 50's. Then Amusement Corp. of America, Statewide theatres, Century theatres, Loew's theatres then the last chain was GCC theatres.

The Beverly Theatre got the Art Deco remodel and new marquee in 1936. And during the early 70's the outside where the small windows (in the above picture)got remodeled , by covering the front areas.

For many years this theatre was operated by the Fox West Coast Theatre chain till around 1960. It was then part of a few more chains: Century, Statewide, Loew's and finally General Cinema Theatres. During the 60's it was one of the Roadshow houses in Los Angeles. It was equipped with Norelco AAII projectors.

According to "American Picture Palaces" by David Nalor (1981) the interior was still intact and the store used it to show off its displays. There is even a wonderful color photo of the interior on page 191.

But since that picture and book has come out the theatre has gone from being a store to being a bank. So most of the interior has been gutted. Remember the book was published in 1981. That theatre stopped being a theatre back around 1977. And it sat empty for a few years after the store left.

According to a 'Buzzcut' item in the June 2004 issue of Los Angeles Magazine, the Beverly Theater building - which was the first movie house in Beverly Hills - is slated for demolition at an unmentioned date.

The City of Beverly Hills helped cause the demise of the movie palaces in downtown Beverly Hills. The big Three were the Fox-Wilshire,Beverly and the Beverly Warner. As long as they were able to play the exclusive reserved seat attractions these theatres did very well.The studios were also to blame for not placing the proper movies in the 1970's that wouldn't have attracted the unruly crowds that caused problems with the residents in the area.They opened "Woodstock" in Beverly Hills instead of Westwood or Hollywood and the "Excorcist" instead of Hollywood on exclusive runs.The Beverly Hills market was great for the upscale and roadshow films such as "The Sound of Music".I saw "On A Clear Day" at the Beverly what a great film presentation. General Cinema was the wrong chain to be running this theatre. They were mainly in the suburban mall market and didn't run single screens in the city. After problems with the "Excorcist" and "Woodstock" Beverly Hills started resticting parking and not allowing for midnight shows. The City help destroy going to the movies in Beverly Hills during the 1970's. The Fine Arts and the Music Hall are upscale smaller cinemas that have been able to survive because they attract the audience that the city is happy with. It was not until the Beverly Center was built did movies return to Beverly Hills in a major way but this was in a mall on the cities border.brucec

Bruce, you posted these memories on the old board and it ate them, huh? :)

General Cinema picked up this house and other Loew's Theatres in the Southern California market, when Loew's dropped the Southern California market from the chain. Most of the theatres were like brucec said were suburban mall market and Drive-In screens. This former Fox house was the oldest in Beverly Hills. Fox West Coast Theatres dropped the theatre back in 1960. After that Statewide, Century and then Loew's Theatres would run it. General Cinema dropped this theatres lease after grosses had died down and Westwood started to show more business after films like the "Exorcist" did Blockbuster business at the National Theatre. But also the releasing patterns of the studios changed during this time. The time of the Roadshow was dying, these pictures that would only play two times a day. There are many things that killed this theatre and the Warner Beverly Theatre around the corner. The Art-Deco Warner Beverly died because a savings and loan company that owned the property found it would cost around 14 Million to do a earthquake retro-fit and restoration on the theatre. Now you want to talk about a real lost to the city and area.

http://cinematreasures.org/news/12185_0_1_0_C/

In the 1970s, I took my young niece to see "That's Entertainment!" here. I still look for the theater dome when driving through BH.

The Beverly is the theatre that hosted the huge Metro-Goldywn-Mayer 50th Anniversary premiere of "Thats Entertainment" which was attended by M-G-M's biggest stars such as Fred Astaire,Gene Kelly,Elizabeth Taylor,Donna Reed,Esther Williams,Lassie,Jimmy Durante,Ava Gardner,Shirley MacLaine,Louis Jordan,Jane Powell,Jackie Cooper,Debbie Reynolds,Howard Keel,June Allyson,James Stewart,Glenn Ford,Charlton Heston,Margret O' Brian,Marge Champion,Janet Leigh,Tony Martin,Cyd Charisse,George Burns,Nannette Fabray,Buddy Ebson,Merle Oberon,Myrna Loy,Donald O' Connor,Ginger Rogers,Johnny Weissmiller,Roddy McDowell,Alexis Smith,Keenan Wynn,Eva Gabor,Zsa Zsa Gabor,Jack Haley,Tom Drake,Adele Astaire,Dan Daily,Vic Damone,Gloria Swanson,Dennis Morgan,George Hamilton,Marjorie Main,Nicholas Bros,Virginia O Brien,Ann Rutherford and many others. A few people on the list were not M_G_M stars but it was the largest premiere I ever saw and it was telecast on Television. They had the red carpet where the stars walked from the theatre to the party at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel accross the street.brucec

There's a nice photograph of the Beverly here: http://www.yesterdayla.com/Graphics/beverly2.jpg

the city of Beverly Hills is going to tear down the building to donate the land to the high-rise Montage Hotel - owned by the Chairman of Ebay.

Not only that, they're also giving the Hotel $33 million in city funds to build a parking lot.

Help save the Beverly Cinema Building! Go to ProtectBH.com to help.

An article in today's NY Times states that a new hotel will take over the site where the Beverly Theater now stands.

Here is a portion of the article dealing with the theater:

"For the city, the project solves a problem that had irked city officials for more than a decade: how to remove the empty and unusable buildings on the site. The most visible of those structures is the Beverly Theater, a 1920's movie house with onion-shaped domes inspired by the Taj Mahal, and now fronted by an incongruous entryway of black glass added in the 1980's.

After the theater closed in the 1970's, the building served as a clothing store and a discount bank before shutting its doors in the early 1990's. Five years ago, the city said that the building was structurally unsafe. "

Beverly Theater was originally designed in the Indo Chinese style, but was later remodeled into an Art Deco theater. The Beverly has a large Taj Mahal-type dome, which is located above the theater's facade. After the huge red carpet premieres the parties continued through the night at The Beverly Wilshire Hotel across the street. Hernando Courtwright Owner and Mr. Whitehead General Manager. Milton Kriess 24 Hour Coffee Shop in the hotel was a meeting place for locals and tourists alike. Celebrities were common place. The Coffee Shop later changed in the 1980's to The Pink Turtle. My family owned the world famous Beverly Hills Liquor Castle, 212 South Beverly Drive.The California Bank building is NOW owned by Clippers owner Donald Sterling,framing Wilshire Blvd to the right. Blums Restaurant with their incredible ice cream sundaes and candy was directly across from The Beverly Theater. Tie Tyme, Progressive Shoe Repair, a Jewelry store and Old World Restaurant, were its neighbors on the left. Paul Fegans Suites atop the Glendale Federal Building,in the 1970's (Paul Fegan Personal Injury attorney and magician, party giver, and event planner. The Fig - Best Parties in Town.
(Mr. Zabo General Manager) In the mid 1970's, Beverly Hills had a number of theaters. But with the noise & traffic generated by such films as Tommy, Woodstock, and others, local citizens began to complain.

Responding to these local complaints, General Cinemas closed the theater in 1977. It was later gutted to become a store - (Fiorucci) At the time of the closing, you could still see what the inside looked like. To get a small look inside this once outstanding theater, watch the film Xanadu.

Today, the theater is empty, and the only remnant of its previous use (Israeli Discount Bank)is the exterior dome. The future of this historic movie palace IS scheduled for demolition in the very near future.

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From the 1967 annual report of Loew's Theatres:

"Your Company has acquired 27 of the Statewide Circuit's fine theatres in Southern California and 3 in Phoenix, Arizona. These include such important showplaces as: the Hollywood Paramount, the Beverly, Crest and Picfair in the Los Angeles area, Century 21 in Anaheim, the Titan in Fullerton, and newly completed theatres in San Bernardino and Bakersfield."

The report also has a photo of the Beverly, showing The Bible.

From:
http://franklinavenue.blogspot.com/2005/08/demolition-derby.html

On August 22, demolition is to begin on three well-known Beverly Hills buildings.

First, and most importantly, is the 1923 dome-topped Beverly Theater. Next to City Hall and Rodeo Drive, this iconic structure -- though dwarfed in recent years by taller buildings -- symbolized old Beverly Hills. I live next door to the woman whose father built the theater. Fortunately, she won't have to witness the demolition from her window. A massive Jerry Snyder "mixed use" project currently under construction now blocks the view.

The other two buildings slated for demolition include the old Canon Theater, which before it went legit showed movies as both The Canon Theater and, in earlier times, The Hitching Post. And next door to that, the Gucci warehouse, once a Bekins or Lyons storage building, also will fall. This building, by the way, was the first poured concrete structure to feature a "waterfall windows" facade.

News of the destruction of The Beverly is terribly sad. Even though the theatre was gutted years ago, the structure stood for many years. I took an exterior tour of this former palace and could only imagine how beautiful it was.

I saw "The Bible" here in 1966 as a birthday gift from my mother. I still remember the huge screen or at least it seemed that way to me. Two theaters gone in one fell swoop. I guess Beverly Hills hasn't been the same since those durn Clampetts moved in. :-)

In the Special features part of the DVD "That's Entertainment" you can see a exterior shot of the theatre during the premiere of that feature.

I was in Beverly Hills the night before this theatre was to go down. All I could think of is how yet another great theatre is meeting with the wrecking ball. "Durn" developers...

For the record, I drove past this building on Saturday and there was no fence around it or any other sign demolition was to begin today.

When the Warner Beverly Hills was being torn down they had fenced the whole front of the theatre off.

It's not often that two historic theaters are simultaneously razed in any town, let alone Beverly Hills. The Beverly Theater was demolished last week, along with the Canon Theatre. I took some photos which can be seen here: http://barryphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/794486

The original "oriental" facade was revealed as the workers stripped off the modern skin. Two of the photos were used in last week's Beverly Hills Weekly. They accompanied a story about the futile last ditch legal efforts to save them.

The Beverly Theatre like the old Warner Beverly Hills Theatre were not earthquake retrofitted in their later years. That was one of the causes when the Warner was razed to make a parking lot for the Rolex company building in Beverly Hills. Talk about two landmark buildings. The way the Beverly Theatre sat, you could see it when you were coming from the south along Beverly Drive from blocks away. While the Warner Theatre could be seen from the north way past Santa Monica Blvd. also blocks away. The down fall for the Beverly Theatre started in 1963 when Fox West Coast Theatres/National General Theatres dropped the theatre from the chain. And for the next decade and a half the theatre was run by four different chains. It had some good runs of great pictures during that time. But as the market and the city changed like in other posts above. Westwood was becoming the next major market for opening films without any problems from the city and neighborhood like in Beverly Hills. The Warner was the first Beverly Hills theatre to be lost over a decade ago. Good thing Fox decided to build the Fox Wilshire Theatre on the east side of the city. Even in the nearby neighborhood to the east of Beverly Hills the Carthay Circle Theatre could not be saved from the wrecking ball in 1970.

From yesterdayla.com:

http://www.yesterdayla.com/Graphics/beverly1.jpg

From the same website. The stripes are a mystery:

http://www.yesterdayla.com/Graphics/beverly2.jpg

How time changes everything. Back in the 1970's & 80's, Westwood was the center of first run film in Los Angeles. (Along with Hollywood). In those days, the Village, National, Bruin, Avco, Crest,etc would always have one of the highest weekly grosses in LA. Many of those films would play Westwood on an LA exclusive basis and it was important for the film companies to always play Westwood. Now, in 2005, the tide has turned once again where Westwood isn't the center any longer. The glory days of Westwood are over. The film companies prefer to take the Grove, or Arclight or a run in Santa Monica instead of Westwood. Tomorrow, AMC opens
their NEW 15 plex stadium in Century City. This new complex will be another nail in Westwood's side.
So, just as Westwood took the business from Beverly Hills in the 1970's, Century City, Santa Monica, Hollywood and West Hollywood are doing the same to Westwood in 2005.

The glory days in Westwood ended in 1988, when a young woman was shot and killed in the Village. I used to go to Westwood on weekend nights in the mid 80s, and the Village was packed. Now it is dead. The opening of the Santa Monica promenade took away a lot of business as well.

I drove past the site today. The area is fenced off, with several trees planted on the perimeter. There is no sign of any construction. As I had not been in that area since before the demolition, it was a little unsettling to cross Wilshire on Beverly and not see that distinctive building.

Another of my childhood theaters gone. Shameful. I saw Rebel Without A Cause there, The Subterraneans, Strangelove (so much fun to see that postcard someone posted), Umbrellas of Cherbourg, That's Entertainment, Tom Jones, and heaven knows how many others. In the 50s I was fascinated by the clock near the screen - it advertised some car - like a Renault or some other sports car. The things you remember. In the 60s, my favorite thing was to walk to Bevery Hills, lunch at the Ontra, and then go to the Beverly.

I think I remembered what car the clock advertised! Austin-Healy.

Here is a movie ad dated march 27,1968 from the loews beverly theater on planet of the apes to view go to http://static.flickr.com/92/243328138_31311ded9d.jpg

Here is another ad from 3-27-1968 on planet of the apes to view go to http://static.flickr.com/79/243388264_79c0518c53.jpg

Here is an undated photo:
http://tinyurl.com/26prlo

photo i took in 1992 when it was a bank but still looked amazing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2120615395/

ken mc, your last photo dates from around Dec. 22, 1948.

I only saw this building when it was the Bank of Leumi. I didn't know it was a theater until I started hanging out here.

It was a wonderful theatre. It was equipped for 70MM during the early 60's. The nearby Warner Beverly Hills Theatre was the true gem in the city, next to the Fox Wilshire Theatre.

As a Fiorucci retail store, the only thing left resembling its earlier theater days was the inclined floor. Principle photography for the "All Over The World" musical number in the 1980 film XANADU was shot at this location.

1982 photo of the Beverly Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c5%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=23589
1984 night photo of the Beverly Theatre.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c5%2c3%2c-1&catpagesize=25&ProductID=23590

That's not this one.

I should have posted them to the Warner Beverly Hills Theater. My mistake.